Gaster's Soul And Secret
by Creative Lynx 13
Summary: Three souls. No. Three sections of one soul. One third trapped. One third lost. One third never seen. Darkness holds one. Hope holds another. Lies hold the last. Determination is broken into two. One half is held by false truths. The other half is held by angry depression. Sometimes the truth should never arise, but keys unlock the truth. Especially when the truth is forgotten.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note : Alright. I'm not sure I know how well this'll turn out, but I'll give it a go. This fan fiction will revolve around the many mysteries of WD Gaster in a way. I will also show you all an idea of mine, probably not the first, though, about Sans and Papyrus' origin since their past is a bit of a mystery as well. The skelebros' origins won't be mentioned in this chapter, and I don't know when I'll be able to reveal it. Now, as usual, I hope you all enjoy this fan fiction. Creative Lynx 13, out.

* * *

The consistent warmth of the sun was refreshing as well as the fresh breeze that swam across the mountain. Frisk had begun to feel claustrophobic from being stuck beneath the wretched Mount Ebott for so long. Frisk peaked a look towards their friends, curious as to how they had been able to live in the Underground for so long. It was something that they just couldn't grasp. And even though the Underground had various regions in which were each different, Frisk couldn't help but find it uncomfortable in every area.

The Ruins were dark, chilly, and created shadows that terrified the young human. Snowdin was freezing cold, a climate that created goosebumps on the human child as well as giving them a horrid cold. Waterfall was a good temperature, but it was eerily quiet other than for the rush of water and whispering echo flowers. Not only that, but Waterfall brought up some nightmarish memories caused by Undyne. Hotland wasn't any better than Snowdin, the only difference being that the place was sweltering hot and had caused Frisk to nearly keel over dead in a couple of time lines. No wonder Undyne hated the place. As for the castle, or. . . whatever Asgore lived in, Frisk wasn't really sure. But the castle was the last place Frisk wanted to be at as it just brought up horrifying memories of battling the homicidal buttercup, Flowey, as well as the battle with. . . the battle with Sans in Judgment Hall.

Frisk shivered at the thought of Sans' calm glare as he tried to reason with the murderous human? Demon? Frisk was unsure. But after trying to solve the issue with Chara, Sans found that he couldn't reason with the insane, soulless being. But. . . something consistently nagged Frisk. Something about Chara didn't add up. She hated humans. She became enraged very easily. She was filled with anxiety about something that she wouldn't tell Frisk, or anyone, about. The weird thing was that Chara could _feel_. She could feel, but it was mostly anger or hatred. Negative feelings that she never talked about, and instead tried to push away those feelings by killing others. Chara. . . actually used the feeling of sadness and depression to keep away her hatred and rage. After every genocide run, Chara would actually cry for hours upon hours before resetting everything, only adding to her problems. Even though the depression would chase away the other two feelings, those feelings would always come back. And each time they did, they brought a couple new friends; Guilt. Grief.

The gentle voice of Toriel, the previous queen of the Underground and the caretaker of the Ruins, startled Frisk out of their thoughts, "My child. Are you alright? You looked like you were contemplating something that maybe I should know about?"

Frisk turned their attention towards their mother, telling her that they were fine in hopes that doing so would cause Toriel to believe such a transparent lie. But the worry that Toriel contained never fled. It lingered, but turned its attention towards the still sinking sun in hopes of distracting it. Frisk did the same, mentally beating them self up, yelling at them self, for their stupid mistake of showing an expression. They actually wore an emotionless face because they didn't like people seeing their emotions and feelings unless they truly wanted to show how they felt. They had only shown their minor emotions a couple of times in the Underground, but never a major one. They never showed the confusion they felt. They never showed the aches of guilt. They never showed their constant depression. . .

Everything's fine. Everything is completely fine. They all have their happy ending. Everyone. Though, . . . never mind. It's nothing.

So, everyone was now happy. The genocide runs were over. The pacifist runs were over. The neutral runs were over. The resets were over. There was going to be no more of any of that. That was all. . . done. . . with?

Frisk found them self looking up as faint light leaked into the surrounding cave. Frisk sat up, an expression of fright crossing their face. They felt them self hyper ventilate with panic as they realized that everything reset. They knew that Sans was going to kill them. He was going to give them such a bad time that they felt sick to their stomach from just thinking about it. Their blood ran cold with the fear they felt, but soon recomposed them self so that they wore their expressionless face again. They had no idea what was happening, and they weren't sure they wanted to know. But that was _before_ they remembered Chara.

'Chara!' they thought to Chara, making sure they sounded furious with her doings. Or, at least, they thought this reset was her doing. They waited. But nobody came. Nobody answered.

'Chara?'

But, once again, nobody came. Frisk began to panic again as the thought of Chara missing was sickening. Chara had always been there with them. From the very beginning she was there. But now, nobody was. Frisk felt the shadows try to curl around them, trying to choke them to death. Trying to kill them with thoughts of horror and fear. Frisk stood so they could escape the shadows as well as look for Flowey, the only monster, other than Sans, with good memory for even when things were reset. They walked through the familiar corridors and caverns until they came to the little patch of green grass that Flowey should have been waiting in. _Should_ have. He wasn't there. Only a patch of black colored grass. Something had managed to kill the grass, making Frisk's stomach squeeze with anxiety at the thought of Flowey being killed. They tried to shake the feeling away, but couldn't. They knew something wasn't right.

They ran through the other corridors, trying to find Toriel. Chara was gone. Flowey was gone. Something was very wrong here. Something wasn't right at all. With each thought came a darker one. One that screamed of the unknown. As Frisk ran down the many hallways and through the multiple caverns, they could feel their countenance fold into something that resembled fear. Anxiety. Distress.

Frisk was relieved to find Toriel walking down the hallway that she had first tested the young human of their independence. Frisk continued to run towards them, but remembered that she wouldn't remember anything. Frisk distorted their face into an unemotional one. They slowed their run to a walk, trying to seem calm. They weren't going to break a second promise to Sans. They couldn't for they were already going to have a bad time, so why not try to minimize the suffering for the next, oh, . . . hundred or so battles against Sans.

Toriel's sweet voice cut into their thoughts of endless nightmares that was thick with fear as she saw them walking this way, "Oh. Hello, child. How did you get past all those puzzles?"

Frisk answered with a lazy shrug, similar to one that Sans would make. They suddenly felt a pain of. . . not guilt. They weren't sure as to what they felt. Like they were missing something, maybe? It doesn't matter. There was a bigger problem than trying to figure out how they were feeling.

Once again, Toriel's voice chipped at their thoughts, bringing their attention towards her, "It does not matter. Could you stay here while I attend to something?"

Frisk shook their head, feeling culpable for making Toriel's kind smile fall. But they were glad to see that Toriel regained their happy expression, making Frisk smile as well. Toriel told Frisk that if they wanted to go home, instead of wait here for the 'surprise' pie to be cooked, that she would happily guide them through the rest of the Ruins. For the remainder of the Ruins, Frisk followed Toriel in all avidity and nervousness to figure out what was happening. Through out the rest of the trip to Toriel's home, none of the other monsters attacked. No Froggits. No Whimsuns. Nobody came. Most likely because Toriel was around, and they were afraid of her, right? They were terrified of her. But. . . Frisk had caught a glance at a couple of Froggits and saw that they were much more terrified than if it were just Toriel. There was something else. Probably something magical of which Frisk was unable to sense since they weren't a monster. This cause Frisk's fear to rise once again.

Eventually, and with some relief, the two reached Toriel's home and Toriel played through the script of which she showed Frisk their room. Frisk went inside and began to try to piece things together, but, with the little evidence they had, they couldn't come up with any real possibility. They sat on the bed and tried contacting Chara again, only to get zero responses other than that of the silence. They were alone, so they had to figure things out by them self. They thought up many reasons as to why Chara wasn't around; She found another host, she wandered away for a while to clear her mind in her ghostly form, or she's sleeping and, therefor, not answering. Frisk eliminated some of the options relating to Chara ignoring them since they were unable to feel Chara's presence. They also killed the thought of Chara having another host since that host would have to be a human with stronger determination then herself. The thought of Chara wandering off, or doing something similar, was also demolished since Chara would have told Frisk about deciding to leave for a while. That left the horrifying ideas that were created from pure fear on what could have happened to Chara, which ranged from Chara somehow being killed to her being kidnapped by someone.

A sharp knock at the door startled their thoughts as they jumped from the sudden noise. The child got up to allow Toriel in, or. . . thought they were going to let Toriel in. They grabbed the doorknob and turned it so that they could look up at Toriel, but instead. . . they saw a shadowy figure. He was a monster that they had seen before, but only a few times. His hands were disconnected from his. . . body? Not sure, but he was mostly a liquid having melted somehow. He smiled widely as his left hand glowed with a faint, red aura. He began to speak in a language that Frisk was unable to understand. He saw this, his pointed smile falling. So, instead of talking, he decided to show. He moved the faintly glowing hand to reveal Chara, pain filled in her eyes as she had a hopeless expression on her face. She had a soul, which was strange enough, and that soul showed flickers of red ensnared in a thick black goo. Not only that, but she only had half a soul. That's when Frisk's own soul found itself outside of its host, and, it too, was only half a soul. Frisk's soul had somehow split in half, and Chara held the other half.

It's amazing how a single _GLITCH_ can cause such a large change in the game. There's a new player. And they aren't human.

. . .

Sans awoke groggily, rubbing his left hand onto his skull. His skull throbbed as he sat up. He was thinking that he must have fallen asleep watching the stars or something, but he couldn't quite remember anything past the sunset that he and his friends had seen upon exiting the nightmarish mountain. That's when he realized that something was very wrong. He was in a house, laying on a mattress. His friends couldn't have had enough time to set all this up. Even with powerful magic, they couldn't have gotten an entire house set up in such a short time.

Sans began to feel his panic rise as his left eye felt the burning sensation of anger come about. He tried to calm himself, and, after he was able to manage his emotions, he turned on a lazy smile so he could fool anyone that he was perfectly fine instead of slowly going insane. He sat in wait for the usual; Papyrus yells for Sans to wake up, the two go out on patrol for humans, then the rest of the game plays out being either genocide, pacifist, or nuetral.

Sans never heard Papyrus' call, feeling nervous about the silence that was now strewn across this timeline. Papyrus would usual yell at Sans for a good ten minutes to hurry up, but ten minutes had passed with nothing but unsettling quiet. Sans stood, taking his blue jacket out from the closet and pulling it on. He walked out of the room as he pulled the white fur lined hood to try to calm his nerves down as fear prickled his bones. He walked to the balcony and called Papyrus' name questioningly. But nobody responded.

Sans walked to his brothers room, knocking on the door before entering. He peaked inside, calling Papyrus' name again. He looked around the room, and even in the closet, but found nobody. He appeared to be alone, but Sans still searched the house. He searched throughout the house once. Then twice. Then thrice. Then another seven times. After that, he went outside to search for his seemingly missing brother. He walked around the Snowdin town with panic lingering around him. Everyone saw his frown, worried about him as they had never seen him in such distress. He didn't care. They shouldn't worry about him. They should be worrying about Papyrus. All he cared about was Papyrus. His brother. The only problem was that nobody knew who Papyrus was. They couldn't remember him, and so they thought Sans was going insane.

Maybe he was. Maybe he was insane. Maybe he imagined having a brother when he was actually all alone. Maybe he had imagined everything. The resets. The genocides. The pacifists. The neutrals. Everything. Maybe he had dreamed it all up. Maybe he had fallen down but managed to survive it. Maybe he. . .

Sans saw the first sign that Papyrus was real and not just a figment of his imagination; An orange skeleton key. Sans felt like he should remember what the skeleton key meant, as if it had a deeper meaning to it, but couldn't remember. He felt like there was supposed to be something he should remember. No. Someone. He understood what the skeleton key meant, but there was someone he was forgetting. But he just couldn't remember who.

Sans picked up the key, moving it into different angles so he could get a better look. He hadn't seen this key in years, and he couldn't remember when he last saw it. Sans had known Papyrus had had the key, but only in the back of his mind. He had never thought about it, and he knew Papyrus kept the key hidden. Papyrus had kept it wrapped within the his bright red scarf all while it hung around his neck as a sort of necklace. And now? Now Sans had found the skeleton key laying on the ground, slowly being covered with a snowfall that fell gently without any thought that they were upsetting the lone by reminding him of how alone he was.

Even though skeleton keys had a simple design, they sometimes had an intricate design at the end of which the key is held. This key, in particular, had a handle shaped as a heart. A monster's soul. The heart shaped soul had green tinted glass lined with the orange bone that the skeleton key was made of.

Sans knew skeleton keys were something rare since skeletons were rare. Skeleton monsters had created these keys so as to protect one another and to show each other love to relatives, close friends, or someone they loved romantically. But it was also a dangerous weapon that was used in case of an emergency. Though skeleton keys were made of bone, they could emit the power of human souls when made correctly. As a result, this weapon couldn't be used very often, hence used in emergencies. Skeleton keys were usually worn as necklaces, held by a chain either made of violet amethyst, deep blue lapis lazuli, light blue sapphire, green emerald, yellow topaz, orange tourmaline, or red ruby. The glass surrounded by the bone on the handle wasn't actually glass, but instead was made of one of the gemstones. Though, the handle wasn't always shaped as a monster soul. The shape was usually formed in a way that represented the monster's personality. This one, the one that Sans had made for Papyrus, contained the green emerald. The chain was spread across the snow, showing that it had somehow been broken. Papyrus may have tried to use it to fight back, but whatever he was fighting was very, VERY powerful.

"Sans!"

Sans jumped at the loud noise that resonated throughout the silent forest. Sans looked over his left shoulder as he put away the skeleton key into the right pocket of his blue jacket. He brought out his own key that had been laying gently in his left pocket, holding it tightly in his left hand. His key was a dark blue instead of a bright orange, and his had a star as the handle design instead of a monster soul. Surrounded by the dark blue bone was yellow topaz, the chain matching in color and gemstone.

"frisk?"

Frisk looked worried. No. Terrified. They looked horror stricken, of which Sans had never seen before. He had either seen no emotion or, when there was emotions, there was only happiness. Frisk was deeply troubled. Confused, even.

"Sans. Sans, Chara's missing."

Sans felt an angry expression grow on his face as his left eye was swarmed with his magic. He asked the human child as to why he would care about Chara being missing. But Frisk didn't answer his question. Instead, they went on a rant of how Flowey was also mysteriously gone and how they were scared to near death about how everything had reset without them actually doing it. But Sans wasn't phased. He had heard a similar excuse, the only difference being 'Chara took over'. Though. . . Frisk looked genuinely horrified and filled with confusion about what was happening. Right as Sans was about to speak was when Frisk noticed the key hidden snugly within

They asked what Sans was holding, but he just held onto the key even tighter as he shifted himself so he could face Frisk better. Frisk walked towards Sans who took a step back. Sans felt his eye sockets widen with fear as the two of them brought horrid memories of fighting Frisk within Judgment Hall. Frisk apologized, and cringed as if expectant of Sans to attack them. He did recall himself making a promise that if they had broken their promises that he would give them a bad time. But this was different. Frisk, for once, was showing genuine feelings that they felt. They. . . reminded Sans of himself. He hid behind a tense smile and horrible puns, they hid behind an emotionless face and false laughter. In a way, the two were one in the same.

"have ya told anyone 'bout the resets?"

Frisk looked up, shock spread across their face. They shook their head, telling Sans that they hadn't told a soul about the resets. As the shock faded, Frisk began to look confused. Even worried. Sans closed his eye sockets, the scorching blue light from his left eye having dimmed. He took in a deep, shaky breath. He needed to calm himself down.

Something wasn't right.

* * *

Author's Note : And that is the first chapter complete. I hope this was enjoyed and I'll try to get out the next chapter asap. Creative Lynx 13, out.


	2. Chapter 2

Sans and Frisk sat in silence at Grillby's. Sans took a swig of ketchup as Frisk kept their head down while they played with the fries in front of them. The human and monster stayed quiet in the uncomfortable tension, both feeling like they had to speak up to break the lingering anxiety. Frisk emitted an aura of fear, even though they held their signature emotionless face. Sans' left eye flickered with anger every now and again just by sitting next to the human whom had used the resets to shred his life into several pieces in a slow, painful fashion. Grillby constantly looked over at the duo as he could tell that they were uncomfortable around each other.

Sans played with his skeleton key, swinging it back and forth subconsciously by the yellow chain. Papyrus' orange skeleton key weighed his right pocket down with grief as Sans felt that Papyrus' disappearance was somehow his fault. He tried to shake the feeling of guilt, but he couldn't. His soul twisted and turned, feeling smaller than it had been in a long while as well as trapped with mixed emotions and feelings. Sans laid his skull on his right hand as his left hand continued with the consistent swinging of the key at the end of the yellow topaz chain.

It was bothersome to hear the other monsters murmuring about him as if he couldn't hear. As if he was sick. He hated how they kept talking about how they thought he was hallucinating or had gone insane over night. None of their rumors were true, and it made his left hand twitch while his hatred and anger grew ever so slowly. They kept coming up with insane ideas that weren't near the truth. 'Maybe he's lonely.' 'Maybe he's about to fall down, because I heard that before a monster falls down that they become delirious.' 'Maybe that human is brain washing him.'

"SHUT UP!"

Sans was standing now, and, even though he was shorter than most monsters, his sudden loudness startled everyone. Everyone had gone silent as Sans scanned over the room with an inflamed left eye socket. Sans noticed that some of the monsters just looked shocked. Others shrunk back into themselves and gave off a shudder from a cold chill caused by the sudden volume of Sans' voice. Everyone was staring straight at him, of which he would usually hate. But he was too angry to care. His feelings of anger, anxiety, depression were now taking over his ability to control his outbursts. The skeleton glared at everyone in the restraurant.

"so. who's the idiot or idiots who's spreadin' rumors 'bout me? stand up, and show yourself or yourselves."

Sans held on tightly to the dark blue skeleton key that was by his left side loyally as a faint magic aura was visibly swimming around it. The faint yellow and blue slowly gathered into a more solid form. It became more physical, as it was made of human magic. The justice and integrity shimmered as a pointed knife became existent in place of the key. The blue was being shown as what would usually be the silver blade. The yellow formed the handle of which Sans held tightly. The star design at the end of the key was still showing, the only difference was that it was ingrained into the handle instead of being used as a handle itself. The yellow topaz chain was also visible, but it had turned into a cloth that wrapped around the handle so as to allow a better grip on the knife.

The monsters stared in fear at the knife as Sans held a firm frown as his left eye stayed flared, but with a bright yellow instead of the usual dark blue. Every monster, even Frisk, was surprised by the way Sans was acting. He was usually better than this. But he also had Papyrus around, whom only Frisk remembered. Sans was usually calm, lazy, and happy. Or, he appeared that way to the bare eye. To anyone who actually knew Sans, which would be Frisk and Flowey since they were the only others who could remember resets, that someone would know that Sans was hiding his depression that has actually lead him to a couple of suicides in a couple of timelines. And those who thought they knew Sans wouldn't be helping matters by saying that everything would be alright.

Grillby stepped out from behind the bar that he usually stood at. He placed his hands on both of Sans' shoulders, about to say something so as to comfort him. . . But. . .

A slashing noise was heard as Sans swung the knife. He had attacked one of his closest friends. The only thing that didn't make sense about the accidental attack was. . . Grillby didn't lose a single HP.

Sans placed his skeletal hands over his mouth as his white pupils constricted with horror at what he had just done. He had dropped his knife, which turned back into a key upon him losing his connection to its human magic, as he took a couple steps backwards and away from Grillby. The clatter of the key resonated throughout the quiet restaurant as the only sound was that of the slowly dissipating sound of the key touching the floor and that of light whispering emitting from other monsters. As for Grillby, he had a surprised and horror filled expression as Frisk slipped off of their seat so that they could stand beside the fire monster.

"g-grillby. . . i-i-i. . ."

A flash of blue left behind a mist of its magic as Sans teleported away. Frisk called out for Sans to come back, but the call was futile as nobody came. Frisk ran out of the restaurant as eyes fell onto them with confusion. They didn't care. As for Grillby, he bent over and picked up the skeleton key that Sans had dropped. He examined it before stuffing it in a pocket that was located on the inside of his formal, dark gray jacket. After that, he told everyone that they had to leave since he was going to close down the restaurant early. Once everyone was gone, Grillby locked the front doors to the restaurant and walked after Frisk.

. . .

Frisk heard their name called as a warmth came closer before enveloping them entirely. Frisk turned around to be face to face with Grillby. He looked worried as did they. Grillby asked if Frisk was a friend of Sans', and they nodded in response, but then felt bad for lying like that. In truth, they weren't friends with Sans, or that's what they thought. They thought that they had hurt Sans too much for Sans to actually want to be friends with them. But that didn't stop them from wanting to make sure that he was alright.

They deeply hoped that Grillby wouldn't notice that they were a human, but, of course, he did. Frisk asked him, no, pleaded, for Grillby not to kill them as their heart beat raced with anxiety. Grillby assured the child that he wouldn't harm them, and that he wanted to find Sans since he and the skeleton were close friends. The two decided that they'd help each other look for Sans.

"Grillby. Do you know Papyrus?"

". . . I'm afraid not. But I trust Sans. And if he believes that he has a brother named Papyrus, then I want to help him find his brother. But, if I may ask, do you know Papyrus?"

There was a long silence as the two began to walk out of Snowdin. Frisk stopped once they reached the long bit of land that they would fight Papyrus at. Grillby looked back at Frisk, confusion spread across his face as well as worry about Frisk. He didn't know what Frisk did, and what Frisk knew was nightmarish. They were remembering the many fights that they had had with Papyrus, ranging from them being captured and escaping as if it were a game to them killing the kind skeleton.

"Papyrus. . . was kind. He would never kill. He loved to cook spaghetti, even if it wasn't very good. He tried so hard to receive attention, but only his brother gave him such attention as most thought he was weird or childish. He wanted to be in the Royal Guard, but he couldn't even kill a human. I. . ."

". . . Yes?"

"I-I can't tell you. I promised Sans I wouldn't tell!" Tears trickled down Frisk's cheek as their voice was now strained from the sadness that curled around them, piercing them like a knife.

". . . I see. I'm sure Sans will tell me in his own time."

Frisk spoke to them self beneath their breath, keeping it from Grillby's earshot, "But he already did."

The two continued their search for Sans, looking from the door leading from the Ruins to the True Lab. After finding nothing, they went back to Sans' home so that they could check there for any clues, but found none. Frisk lay on the couch, their head on Grillby's lap. The fire monster rubbed Frisk's head with his right hand as he contemplated any other ideas. That was when he felt a cold chill radiating from the pocket that he had placed the key into for safe keeping. He pulled out the key as a sharp pain hit the left hand he had used to bring out the key.

Grillby gave a sharp intake of breath from the pain as he dropped the key onto the carpeted floor. Frisk jumped at the sudden noise from Grillby, sitting up so that they could see what was wrong. The fire monster looked at his left hand, a deep, crimson draining from within his fire. His eyes widened as well as Frisk's because of the blood that now trickled in a thin stream down Grillby's hand. Frisk began to look queasy at the sight of the thick, red water, but held the bile down that was beginning to rise in their throat. Grillby had no feelings about the alien substance, other than shock. But he wasn't a human like Frisk.

While Grillby was paralyzed with confusion, Frisk picked up the key from the floor.

". . . I don't understand. It didn't do that earlier."

Frisk brought up the key, dangling it by the yellow topaz chain. It still looked the same, but it something was different. Frisk studied it, trying to find a difference in what had caused it to cut Grillby. Cut. They remembered the knife and came up with a hypothesis that maybe if someone was cut by the knife before that the key would then respond that way to that someone. But it didn't add up because Grillby had said that he had picked it up before.

Frisk jumped off the couch and ran out the door, leaving it wide open behind them. A tingling sensation shot through them as they ran through the frozen wind, trying to find out what was wrong. They knew that the key wouldn't just change its mind because it was an inanimate object, so there had to be another reason.

"Gerson!"

"Oh. Hello there, young one. What d'ya need?"

Frisk told the old turtle monster that they needed him to check this key so that they could collect as much detail about it as possible.

"Hmm. That there is a skeleton key. Haven't seen one of these in quite a while. Who's is it?"

"Sans'."

"Alright. Well, I can tell you this much; Skeleton keys like these hold human magic when made properly. This one has integrity and justice, I think."

"Well, what would be the reason as to why it would cut a monster?"

"Maybe if the owner feels that way. But it may be because this key here is separated from its owner. I don't know a lot about this item here because skeletons don't really like showing it off. But, I have seen one in action. I don't recall who owned it, but it turned into human weapon of sorts. I think it was a rapier. I don't recall who the monster was, but I do know that whoever they were they were very powerful."

Frisk thanked the monster before running off to find Sans in the one area that they wouldn't have expected him to go.

. . .

'This is just a nightmare, Sans. This is just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Just. A. Nightmare!'

Sans rocked back and forth as he clasped the area of where his stomach would be if he were human, and his legs cross legged as he sat on the golden tiled floor. The bright sunlight didn't help him calm down as he kept his eye sockets closed. He shook lightly with fear as he cried with pale blue tears. He was scared, horror stricken. He had just attacked Grillby with a knife. The weapon of his demise. The weapon of Chara.

"papyrus. . . papyrus. where are you?" His voice was strained. Sans continued to try to calm himself down, the corridor he was in not helping in any way. If anything, the hallway was just causing his anxiety to rise as he had been sitting there for about an hour now. Sans felt the warm rays of actual light interlacing into his bones, but he just pushed away the tiresome warmth. Instead, he wanted darkness. Endless darkness. But this was the only place he could go as he leaned himself against the pillar behind him. Why he came here was because he knew he would be alone here. Frisk would expect him to be somewhere more comforting instead of some place where most his nightmares took place.

"PAPYRUS!"

Thirty minutes had passed, and his voice had slowly escalated to a scream of painful loss of his missing brother. His screams for Papyrus echoed in the corridor, but nobody came. Nobody even heard.

"i'm not insane. i know he's real. i-i know it," His voice had drained down to a whisper as he talked to himself. He couldn't stop his anxiety from rising as his tears thickened into streams. Every once in a while he screamed with every few minutes that passed, making his voice go hoarse. . . until he was no longer able to scream or speak.

. . .

Dark.

Darker.

Yet darker.

He had screamed for help, but he had to force someone to come.

. . .

Frisk awoke, looking up as light trickled over stones into the cavern and onto the golden flowers. The light revealed dank stone that was lit faintly by the daylight above. The human child stood quickly, becoming dizzy. They allowed time so they could recover from the dizzy spell before they began to run through the caverns known as the Ruins so that they could find Sans and Papyrus. Flowey was also missing, having not shown up in his usual spot at the beginning of the game. Chara was also still missing, probably still captured by that monster behind the gray door.

Frisk hid from Toriel as the kind goat woman walked to the entrance to the Underground so she could check for any humans who may have fallen. Frisk ran as fast as they could, that is, before they reached the Ruins' exit. Frisk landed a face plant into the stone flooring, their nose bleeding from the impact as they gave a light yelp of pain from the fall. Frisk felt a something wrap tightly around their left ankle as Frisk rolled onto their back to get a better look at their attacker. They opened their eyes with shock and happiness as they saw someone that they hadn't seen in the last timeline. But that smile fell just like they had. Golden yellow petals glimmered in the faint light, slightly torn, as a pale face filled with worry looked at Frisk with crying eyes. A green vine that lacked thorns curled around Frisk's left ankle as if trying to drain the human for any reassurance of the current situation.

"Flowey? W-what's wrong?"

"It's Chara. She's being hurt! You have to save her! I don't want her to die!"

Flowey cried as he put up two shredded leaves to his eyes so he could hide his tears. He was terrified, and Frisk didn't blame him for being so scared.

"You have to save her! I promise I won't hurt you or your friends anymore! I'll even help you save Sans and Papyrus!"

Frisk sat up as they brought Flowey in for a hug before asking, "You know where Sans and Papyrus are?"

Flowey nodded as his crying from feeling helpless subsided. He looked at Frisk with pleading eyes.

"Alright. I need you to tell me everything."

"I-I was trapped in this dark place. A monster that I think I should know had also captured Chara. He was speaking in a language that I didn't understand, but I was able to figure out that he was trying to escape. He was trying to escape. And he's dangerous! He has an LV of thirteen hundred! His HP is up to thirteen thousand! He's dangerous. He wants to kill someone. Someone who trapped him in that dark place. I. . . I think he's trying to use Sans, Papyrus, and Chara to escape. When he tried Chara, he found out that he wasn't able to escape, so he decided he'd use Sans and Papyrus as a sort of backup plan.

Papyrus was crying for help. I-I think he was hallucinating. Or maybe he was just scared of the darkness. And Sans. I haven't seen much of him. But he looked in pretty bad shape. He looked like he would turn to dust any second. Not only that, but he didn't seem to notice Papyrus. When Papyrus saw Sans, he-he kept crying for Sans to open his eyes. I think Sans was having a nightmare, or maybe he was just keeping his eyes closed so that he didn't have to see the horrifying darkness. Last I saw of the two, Papyrus was scratching at the darkness as if trying to escape. And Sans. His breathing was really shallow. He may have fallen. But I-I don't really know. I was so scared!"

Frisk pulled Flowey in for another hug, hoping to comfort him. Instead, Flowey just pulled away from the human. He explained that he had snatched something from the monster that had captured him and still had Chara, Sans, and Papyrus in captivity. He fell underground and popped back up within a few minutes, dangling a black colored skeleton key with one of his vines. The key was made of bone like Sans'. The handle was shaped as a diamond with a red ruby showing off its disturbing beauty.

"H-he would take this out and threaten to use it against us, but he never did use it. I don't know what it does. And I don't know why he acted as if it was dangerous. I mean, it's just a key."

"No. That's a skeleton key. It's a good thing that you took that away from him. And now I know what type of monster the captor is; A skeleton."

"What? Those types of monsters are powerful. A-and I heard that they used powerful weapons-"

"That is the powerful weapon."

Flowey looked between Frisk and the skeleton key before he let out a small scream, retracting his vine so the key dropped to the ground. His eyes were wide with shock and fear as his breathing became rapid and tight. Frisk grabbed the key and placed the red ruby chain around their neck, right next to a yellow topaz chain and dark blue skeleton key. The two keys emitted a faint glow, one radiating justice and integrity, the other glimmering with nothingness and determination.


	3. Chapter 3

An eager, young skeleton monster sat in wait for his father. He was excited about what he had been told. About what he was aloud to do; Help his father. It had been quite a few months of being ignored by his father, making him feel miserable for what he had done. He hadn't meant to break his father's expensive telescope. It had been an accident. Yet he was punished for his mistake.

At one point, his father had allowed him to help him with recording the position of the stars. The skeleton child had lost his balance when going to fetch something for his father, knocking over the telescope in doing so. He had been lectured very aggressively to be more careful before being forced into a battle with his very powerful father.

His father had strong magic. Soulless magic. When one is soulless, they hold a stronger magic. But they have to be one hundred percent soulless. His father had lost his soul because of his son. That was also an accident. Now, soulless magic is different than most magic. Everything dealt damage to the opponent of whomever was soulless. The soulless monster would also gain HP for every bit of HP the enemy lost. And whenever the soulless monster lost HP, that amount would also be drained from the enemy and returned to the monster. Basically, monsters without souls were undefeatable.

A door sounded as the skeleton watched his father walk in, slamming the door behind him. The older skeleton had an angry look scrawled across his face as his hands fumbled with sheets of paper. The youth filled skeleton jumped off the seat he was sitting on and followed his father.

The young skeleton asked his father was wrong, but his father didn't respond at first. Instead, he mumbled in their native language, one that was rarely used. It took a while for the father to answer, mostly because he didn't want to answer the son that he took no liking to.

"It's nothing. There's just a few complications with the machine."

The father waved his son off to go watch do his homework, but the child had already finished it. So, to pass time, he went to his room and decided to read a book on quantum physics. Three hours passed unnoticed by the skeleton, whom lay on his bed, which was actually just a mattress laid on the floor. Plaid purple blankets wrapped around him as his white pupils scanned the text. He was startled when he heard a knock at the door.

"It's time to go. The machine should be working, now."

The skeleton smiled as he leapt off of his bed and he ran to the door. As he grabbed the handle, his father called for him to not forget his jacket. The skeleton ran to his closet and grabbed the deep blue jacket that was lined with white fur, and he pulled it on as he walked quickly to the door that was on the opposite side of the room. He opened the door, grabbing the black skeleton key on his nightstand. He draped the red ruby chain around his neck as he let the key dangle over his black turtleneck on his way downstairs.

The father and son walked out the door, the father teleporting the two after locking the door to their house. The young skeleton swayed with dizziness as he was still not used to his father's teleportation abilities. The father skeleton walked off into the laboratory, the child following. He kept a focused glare on the many papers trapped by the clipboard he held. The son followed silently, receiving looks of confusion and even disgust. He kept his eyes to the tile covered ground, feelings of anxiety curling in his bones. He had to stay good this time so that his father didn't push him away again.

The child bumped into his father, whom had said that the two had reached their destination.

"Now, listen closely. This is just a prototype and has not yet been tested. I need you to walk into the machine while I get it prepped up."

The son became shocked at the request his father had asked of him. He didn't want to listen, but his father gave an annoyed look. Though he probably felt nothing since he was soulless. Ever since the child skeleton had made his father's soul disappear, the adult skeleton was unable to feel anything. But he had to keep the fact that he was soulless hidden, which meant that he had to express the proper emotions that one with a soul would show. And, it wasn't the look his father gave him that sent a chill down his spine. It was the thought of entering a battle with his father. So he kept silent and did as he was told.

The child walked into the machine, a clear barrier cutting him off from the rest of the world. He felt his chest tighten as the machine began to groan and whir as it began to work at whatever it was supposed to do. The small skeleton wrung his hands together with fear as he was the test subject to a prototype machine that had never been tested until now. He felt his fear consume the air around him as he breathed in shallow breathes. He didn't know what to expect, but he soon felt light headed. He placed his hand onto the glass as it became harder to breathe. He felt his legs grow weaker as he fell to his knees. His vision blurred as he screamed for his father to stop. . . but he didn't listen.

At some point, the young skeleton must have blacked out as he awoke in a new surrounding. He was tucked into his bed at his home in Snowdin. He sat up, rubbing his throbbing skull. It wasn't long before he heard screaming coming from another room. In panic of thought that his father was in trouble, he ran out of his room and to his father's room that was located at the end of the balcony that was connected to a stairwell. Upon reaching the door, he found it locked. He pulled off his skeleton key and placed it into the lock so he could unlock the door. But what he found was not what he expected. Another skeleton, one he hadn't seen before, stood before him.

The skeleton before him had wide eye sockets and white pupils. He wore the same black turtleneck and gray jeans as him self, thought they were a bit large for this new being. He was slightly shorter as well, and seemed scared as to where he was and what was going on. Around his neck dangled a dark blue skeleton key that was held by a yellow topaz chain. The handle, with a different design than his diamond one, was shaped with a star. This skeleton had been the one screaming, and it was out of fear of the unknown. He had pale blue tears streaming down his cheekbones as he backed away from the taller skeleton child. It wasn't long before the shorter skeleton ran off to hide somewhere in the bedroom.

The taller skeleton walked after the other skeleton briskly so he could find him. He looked around the room, but found nothing. It appeared that he had just. . . disappeared. That is, it seemed that way until the young skeleton found a pocket in space that was twisted and distorted. The smaller skeleton had his knees brought up towards his chest as his arms hugged them and his skull laid on the caps of his knees. Quiet cries and unsteady breathes could be heard from him.

The taller of the two asked if the other was alright, but he received no response. The skeleton asked again, but a little louder. The second skeleton looked up, fear crossing his dull white pupils. The two stared at each other, but the tension soon caused a mental breakdown of the new monster. His tears came out faster, but his cries stayed fairly silent. He closed his eye sockets as he muttered things underneath his breath. He mumbled things like 'Leave me alone.' and 'Don't hurt me.' And, upon closer inspection, it could be seen that the skeleton, whom was supposedly mangling the surrounding space with terror, had a deep fissure running along some of the bones on his right arm.

The tallest noticed the marks that were scraped into the other's bones, its look causing the taller to shiver with the thought of how much pain the smaller skeleton was in. The taller skeleton told the other that he was going to help him, but, as the taller skeleton knelt in front of the one that had the equivalent of scars crossing over one another, the smaller skeleton tried to get away as he was terrified and unsure about his surroundings. His eye sockets were wide with horror and fear. He begged for mercy. He cried to be spared. The tallest stopped trying to get near him when he heard the door open with a loud thud, causing the other skeleton's concentration to be destroyed. The malformed pocket in space dissipated as the taller skeleton's father walked in.

"What are you doing in here!?"

The son tried to explain that he had heard screaming coming from within this room, but the father ignored the son. Instead, he grabbed the collar of the smaller skeleton's turtleneck and began to drag him off. The son yelled at his father, telling him to let the other go. His father turned towards him.

"And why should I?"

The son explained that the other skeleton was hurt, but his father told him that _it_ couldn't feel anything. That _it_ was to be. . . terminated as soon as possible. The son yelled at his father, saying that the other skeleton could feel. But his father ignored him. Anger materialized in both his eye sockets as a red glow. He pulled the red ruby chain over his head as he took off the necklace. He held the key in his right hand, waiting for the human magic to solidify so he could strike his father. Once the magic had done its deed, his father had bit the dust not a second later.

Black dust was strewn across the floor, some of it covering the other skeleton. The smaller skeleton looked in awe, but the horror never left. He looked between the weapon of his captor's demise and the owner of such a weapon. He didn't know if he wanted to scream in the fear he dwelled in, or if he wanted to cry from the how traumatized he was. But what he didn't expect was silence.

. . .

Sans felt himself half unconscious. He was in between being asleep and being fallen. It was something that he had never experienced before as he heard faint voices, one of them being Papyrus'. He struggled to grasp his consciousness, trying to reach Papyrus.

"STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!" Sans could barely hear Papyrus as another voice entered soon after his brother's faint screams. The voice was too quiet for Sans to hear it, but he could identify that the voice spoke in another language that he felt like he would understand if he heard it clearly.

An unnerving silence lingered over Sans as he felt more and more awake.

"p-papyrus?"

"SANS? SANS! YOU'RE AWAKE!"

Sans opened his eye sockets, seeing an eternal nothingness before him. He gave off a low groan as he tried sitting up. A sharp pain shot through his soul, and a soft sigh exited him from the sudden pain. Papyrus told him not to move, but Sans didn't listen as he was now fully sitting up. Sans looked down at his soul for the first time as a cold chill was sent down his spine. His soul was only a fraction of a whole soul and was a deep blue instead of the normal white. Wrapped around the soul was a thick, black, gooey substance that stung his soul. The substance was a liquid and wandered off in two random directions. Sans turned his skull to one direction so he could watch the chain lead to another soul. Papyrus' soul. The other chain lead off to an opposite direction, phasing through a gray door. Sans turned back to Papyrus.

Papyrus' soul, of which Sans hadn't seen either, was a bright orange and also a portion of a soul like his own. With the bright orange, of which glowed faintly with little hope, was the owner. Papyrus had his arms pinned to his sides with the same chain as he sat on the ground, or whatever was keeping Sans from falling. His legs were also tied together with the black substance as he looked fearfully at Sans. Papyrus' eye sockets skimmed to something, or someone, behind Sans. Sans followed his gaze, only to be surprised with the same blackened chains.

Sans' screams resonated throughout the darkness, yet light, for what felt like hours. But Sans finally gained control over himself as his HP lingered at point zero zero one. The scorching sensation that the chains sent through his bones never subsided and had charred his clothes. Sans looked around at his surroundings, before resting his eyes on Chara.

Chara was in the same situation as Papyrus and himself, black chains wrapped around the human child. For once, Sans felt pity for her. But he wiped away the feeling as soon as it came. He wouldn't feel compassion for the being that killed his brother many times as well as everyone else. The genocidal creature deserved no sympathy, yet. . . Sans hated to hear himself think like that towards someone. He felt guilt crawling on his back as he hadn't been any better than Chara as he had killed both Frisk and Chara as many times as Chara had monsters.

"SANS!"

Papyrus' voice shook Sans out of his thoughts as he now noticed a tall figure stood over him. The figure seemed eerily familiar, sending cold chills down his spine. The monster held a firm smile on his face as Sans stared up at him. The monster took out a skeleton key, the color a deep black and a handle design of a triangle. A black onyx could be seen within the triangle and as a chain. A padlock appeared on the oozing chains rapped around Sans' soul as the monster bent down to unlock it. A loud 'clunk' could be heard as the liquid chains fell around Sans.

Sans didn't stop looking, staring, at the partially melted skeleton before him. Sans heard Papyrus ask about the key because, apparently, Flowey had been around and stolen his key as he escaped. The skeleton before Sans said nothing, but instead lifted Sans' skull upwards so that he could look directly into Sans' white pupils.

Sans closed his eye sockets so that he didn't have to see anything, but a dull magic swarmed around him, forcing his eye sockets open. The skeleton was clearly trying to fill him with fear, and it was working. But, after a few minutes, the skeleton stood and walked over to Papyrus. Sans' eye sockets followed as the magic continued to control him. The skeleton stood in front of Sans' brother, tightening the chains causing a scream to form from Papyrus.

"stop it!"

Sans was unable to move. All he could do was yell for the skeleton to stop hurting his brother. After what felt. like hours, Papyrus was no longer able to scream in pain. Sans relaxed as he saw the chains loosen around his brother, but they didn't come off. The magic around Sans dispersed and he was then able to control himself again. The skeleton walked to the gray door as a loud pounding and unearthly scream emitted from behind the door. The skeleton walked in, the screams ceasing. Sans was unable to see what was inside the room behind the door.

"SANS."

Sans looked to Papyrus, then crawled over to Papyrus as he was still untied. Papyrus had a look of exhaustion as he stared at Sans.

"paps. papyrus, it's alright. i'm gonna get us outta here."

"BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER ONE? THE ONE BEHIND THAT GRAY DOOR? WE HAVE TO HELP THEM, TOO."

Sans looked to the door before looking to his and Papyrus' soul. Whoever was in the room, their soul was chained to the two skeleton brothers' souls.

"alright. i'm just gonna get these chains off ya first."

Sans began to try to pull of the liquid material that was spun around Papyrus, but he was unable to. After he had tried to pull off the chains by force, including him trying to summon his magic with no success, Sans searched the left pocket for the skeleton key he thought he had placed into the pocket. But he found nothing. Sans felt himself began to panic as he searched the right pocket of his jacket, but only found Papyrus' key.

"paps. do ya remember how to use this?"

"I-I THINK SO."

"do ya think you can use it?"

"I'LL TRY."

Sans placed the skeleton key in Papyrus' right hand as the padlock appeared. Sans pulled at the padlock lightly, but it did nothing to allow Papyrus to unlock it. Sans asked Papyrus if he could summon the weapon that the key could turn into, and, luckily, Papyrus nodded his skull in confirmation.

Papyrus focused his magic into the key as an orange bow with a green cloth wrapped around the center that allowed him to hold the weapon firmly as well as align the arrow. The arrow was of the same color except for green feathering at one end to allow the arrow to fly straight as well as a green point at one end to pierce its enemy. Papyrus began to use the arrow to pick at the lock, succeeding within a couple of minutes. The lock fell to the ground with a thud, causing Sans to look from the gray door and back to Papyrus every few seconds.

"ALRIGHT. LET'S HELP OUT THAT OTHER SKELETON."

Papyrus and Sans stood up in almost complete unison. Sans walked towards the door with Papyrus staying far behind, arrow nocked so he could quickly aim and fire if need be. Sans placed his skeletal hand on the door knob, bracing himself for what ever might be at the other end. What he didn't expect was what he saw.

Another skeleton sat on the floor, hugging himself as he mumbled to himself. The skeleton wore a deep gray colored jeans a black belt fixated about his waste with an ashen hued sweater. A faint, fraction of a soul flickered weakly with blackened light as Sans walked into the room, Papyrus following far behind. The skeleton looked upwards very faintly as he now stared at Sans with empty eye sockets.

* * *

Author's Note : And here's another chapter. Now, I would have released this fan fiction with a cover, but I had some complications with uploading the image and what not. But, none the less, I have finally uploaded a cover image for this fan fiction. Also, I've been trying to make the chapters in my fan fictions longer as I've felt they were too short. So I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll try to get the next one out whenever I can. Lynx, out.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note : I am very sorry I took so long with this chapter. I have had a horrendous amount of writers block. But, I do hope you all enjoy this chapter. Now, if any of you have read my first few fan fictions you'd know that the chapter's are rather short. So, I've been trying to make the chapters longer, but, in the process of doing so, my fan fictions may be shorter as well. Which, in conclusion, means that this Undertale fan fiction may not have many chapters. I'm still new here on so my fan fictions may not be the best. But, again, I do hope my fan fictions are enjoyed. Lynx, out.

* * *

"Sans! Sans, where are you?"

"i'm over here, gaster."

The depressed voice called from another room as Gaster walked out of the room that Sans was supposed to stay in. As Gaster headed in the direction of Sans' voice, which was located in the kitchen, he heard sounds of distress echo throughout the mostly empty house. When he reached the kitchen, he saw something that he wasn't quite expecting.

"Sans! What did you do!?"

Gaster ran over to Sans who was standing by the wall that was to the right of the entrance to the kitchen. Sans looked over his right shoulder to see Gaster since he was turned away from the taller skeleton. He had a sad look plastered on his face as he looked between Gaster and his right skeletal hand, of which was entrapped by the wall he was near.

"Sans. How did you get your hand stuck in the wall?"

"um. . . i-i don't really know."

Gaster walked over to Sans and studied over the predicament as Sans tugged at his hand lightly.

"I need you to stand still, Sans."

The shorter skeleton stilled as Gaster used his magic to free Sans from the grasp of the wall. Afterwards, he took Sans' left hand and led him to the room that the short skeleton child was supposed to stay in.

"Alright. You don't remember walking out of this room, right?"

"i-i just appeared down there without any thought of how it happened."

"Oh my- Okay. You seem to have teleported. Again. Last time this happened, you got your right foot stuck in the ceiling."

"i-i'm sorry," Sans looked to the ground as Gaster tried to grasp how to control Sans' erratic teleportation.

"It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. I just need to teach you how to control your magic. What were you doing before you teleported?"

"u-um. . . i don't really know."

The lie in his voice told Gaster that Sans had been thinking about something that he didn't want to talk about. So, Gaster turned to close the door after telling Sans that he had to get some supplies, but, before he left, Sans called his name.

"Yes, Sans?"

"um. . . th-there's something i didn't tell you when i had gotten my foot stuck in the, um, ceiling."

"And what would that be?"

"i. . . i can't really feel anything in my right foot anymore. or my right hand."

"Hmm. I'll try to figure something out, but, for now, I have to get the needed supplies."

Sans nodded and said that he'd stay in the room, though Gaster knew that the other skeleton was at risk of teleporting again. He made a mental note to teach Sans how to use magic properly and safely once he was done getting the needed supplies.

. . .

Upon returning with all the supplies, Gaster heard a scream reverberate from the room that Sans was in. He had only been gone a couple of hours, but a lot of things can happen in such a short amount of time. So, Gaster dropped what he was carrying and ran upstairs to find Sans laying on the ground.

Gaster stared in shock upon finding the right side of Sans' skull ensnared in the carpet covered floor. After recovering from the shock, Gaster ran to Sans' side. While Sans cried in fear, Gaster tried to calm him. Nothing seemed to work, so he moved on and used his magic to bring Sans' skull from out of the flooring. What he saw was something he hadn't anticipated, and it was most likely the reason behind Sans' screaming as he had never done so before when part of him was phased through a solid object.

The right side of Sans' skull was partially missing, mostly around his eye socket. Gaster knew the pain of losing some of his bone, but losing a large chunk of bone must have been ten times more painful. And the worst part was the fact that this injury wouldn't heal on its own. Someone with a lot of knowledge on healing would have to help Sans. And Gaster had an idea of how much time he had to get the needed help for Sans; One hour. He would have more time if he had more HP, but for some reason his HP wouldn't increase. There would also be the added difficulty of paying whomever had such a strong ability of healing.

Gaster told Sans to stay where he was and to try not to move as he thought about who to get and how much gold he'd have to pay them. After all, he was unable to make any sort of money since he was only thirteen. So, he left Sans who was severely injured as he went to scout out for someone whom could heal.

. . .

"Excuse me. Do you know how to heal?"

The rabbit monster who ran the shop in Snowdin stared at Gaster worriedly, but answered his question.

"Sorry. And I don't know anyone who can heal either."

"I can just find someone else. Thank you, anyway."

Gaster left, continuing to search the small town of Snowdin for anyone whom could heal. After asking everyone that was around, he sat on the steps of his father's house. He placed his skeletal hands over his eye sockets as tears began to uncontrollably stream down his cheek bones. His hour had almost been spent, ten minutes being the last few that separated Sans from death.

". . . Excuse me. I heard some of my customers saying that you needed someone that could heal. Maybe I could be of service?"

Gaster looked up to see a tall fire monster standing before him, a concerned look spread across his face.

"Y-yes. I'll give you anything if you help him!"

The fire monster nodded even though he didn't know whom the young skeleton was talking about. He than began motioning for Gaster to lead him to where ever the monster who needed healing was. So, Gaster lead the fire monster into the house and upstairs where Sans was sitting.

At some point, Sans had become unconscious and had accumulated shallow breathing. There was dust spread around him, his one HP down to a dangerously low decimal.

Gaster looked at the fire monster who had knelt next to Sans, examining the injury. He confirmed that he could heal him, but not fully. He had told Gaster that Sans may develop some. . . problems because of the location of his injury.

". . . What exactly triggered such a severe injury?"

"He teleported, I think. I don't really know. I wasn't around when it happened."

The fire monster finished up with healing Sans, the bone having slowly grown back. Sans' breathing was also back to normal, but he was still unconscious. Gaster picked up Sans and placed him on the mattress that was laying farthest from the entrance. After he felt safe leaving Sans alone for a while, he turned towards the fire monster and asked him to follow him downstairs. The monster did so, looking back at the skeleton monster he had just healed.

"So. . . I want to thank you for healing my. . . brother. Um. H-how much do I need to pay you?"

". . . There is no need for you to pay me. I am happy that I could help, but I was wondering where your parents were."

"Oh! U-uh. Y-you s-see, they're, uh, busy. So my b-brother and I are sorta a-alone right now. B-but they sh-should be back s-soon."

The monster nodded, but didn't seem to buy the lie.

". . . My name is Grillby. I own the restaurant here in Snowdin. If you need anything else, you can come to me for help."

"Thank you, sir. Are you sure you don't want me to pay you?"

". . . Yes, I'm sure. But I would like you to keep me informed about how your brother's doing until he's fully recovered."

"Alright. I will."

". . . What's your brother's and your name?"

"My name is Gaster. My brother is Sans."

. . .

Eventually, Grillby left. This relieved Gaster greatly since he had no trust in other monsters, minus Sans. And, now that the fire monster was gone, Gaster could be alone, but he would still have to check on Sans every now and then.

So, with a lot of spare time now, Gaster decided he'd watch the MTT News to see what exciting, or terrifying and dangerous, things were occurring in the in the Underground.

"Hello beauties and gentle beauties, and welcome to today's MTT News! Today, there has been some extremely exciting news. It is rumored, but not confirmed, that our king has captured another human soul. Not only that, but our king has also devised a group that he calls 'The Royal Scientists'. It is confirmed that they are a group of monsters that are solely focusing on DESTROYING the barrier."

After about thirty minutes, Gaster went to check on Sans; He was still unconscious. Gaster went back downstairs, and turned off the tv so he could read some. Not twenty minutes had passed when Gaster heard a small voice.

"gaster?"

The young skeleton looked up from his book and towards the balcony, finding Sans standing there and using the railing to keep himself balanced. His white pupils were dimmed greatly and he looked drained of all energy.

"Sans. You should be resting."

"i-i know. i was just wondering. . ."

"Yes?"

"i was wondering if you could stay here more often."

Gaster was away from the house frequently. He knew that, but he had to be out and about. He either had to scavenge for needed items or had to find ways to get money. He was never paid much when he found a monster willing to let him work for a few hours, and he rarely got enough money to sustain himself and Sans.

"You know I can't do that."

"u-um. . . yeah. i know. um, i'll go back to my room."

When Gaster heard the door click shut, he heard quiet sobs of loneliness. He hated that he couldn't be with Sans, but someone had to keep them both alive. With some thought, Gaster came up with a possible solution to Sans' predicament. So, he stood and walked out the front door and around to the back of the house where the machine that his father had created slept within a basement. Upon entering the small laboratory, Gaster noticed the machine easily. The hardest part would be becoming the test subject for a second time.

"Alright. All you have to do is set everything up, and then put the machine on automatic. The result should end similarly. But. . . is this a good decision? I mean, the first time didn't quite work right. What if I end up dying this time around? Besides, how could I possibly keep up with three skeletons when I can barely keep up with two?"

. . .

"Oh, Flowey. I don't know what to do. I'm completely lost. No one remembers Papyrus and Sans, and I'm scared about what could be happening to them."

"I-I'm worried too, Frisk. Especially about Chara. I don't know who the monster was, but I don't think he has a soul because he sure acts like he doesn't have one."

Frisk was about to respond to Flowey with something that would hopefully be reassuring to the golden flower, but, before they could say anything, an unnerving sound hissed in their ears; The sound of a door being opened. Only problem was that the human and monster were in the middle of the forest surrounding Snowdin.

"D-did you hear that, Frisk?"

"Yeah. Sounded like it came from over there."

Frisk stood and walked off in the direction of the bizarre noise, Flowey screaming for Frisk to not hunt down the horrifying noise. Frisk, of course, didn't listen. Though, they did hide behind a tree when they found the figure from behind the gray door. Strangely, they could understand what he was saying even though they had been unable to understand his strange language from earlier.

"Ah. Finally. It's been so long since I've seen anything. Well, I'm glad I figured that out. I just can't believe my idiot son did that to me. Oh, wait. I can believe it, because it's something that thick skulled, irrational dimwit would do. I'm just glad he can now suffer for all eternity. Hold on a minute. I can't feel a single thing. I'm soulless. Isn't that right, . . . Frisk?"

The monster turned towards Frisk's hiding spot, sending a thick liquid towards the human. The liquid wrapped around them and the tree they were hiding behind, shifting into a solid shape resembling chains all while remaining liquid. The young human felt the hot, tar like substance rub against their skin and compress them against the tree that they had been hidden behind.

They heard the gray door that the soulless monster had walked out from close with a click and then heard footsteps hit the soft, powdery snow. Footsteps. That was something that they didn't recall.

"You're confused, aren't you? Allow me to explain. In the void, I slowly liquefied. But, upon entering time and space, I was able to regain my original form. Only disappointing thing that I have to carry with me are these cracks in my skull that my son gave me."

The monster pointed to the two fissures that were scrapped into his skull by what may have been a knife.

"You're thinking a knife did this. Well, you're wrong. Sans didn't even know how to control his magic when he was created. It was actually a rapier, the second most powerful skeleton key if I recall correctly.

Oh, are those too tight for you? Here, allow me to loosen them a bit."

The monster snapped his first two digits, creating a sort of clicking noise. In response, the chains tightened. Frisk gave a slight yelp of pain from the amount of pressure that the chains provided.

"There. That's better, isn't it? I mean, a scream of pain is always a good sign. You know why? Because it means you're alive. Yay."

The sweet sarcasm made his tone sound bitter and filled with no care what so ever, though, that's natural for one whom is soulless.

Frisk watched as the skeleton bent down and took the two skeleton keys that were dangling from the young human's neck. He placed both around his neck with two others; An orange and green skeleton key, and a black skeleton key.

"There. Now my little family is put back together. When one suffers, the others follow.

Don't worry about your _friends,_ human. They'll be fine in the Void. All they'll have to endure was the same thing I had to, which was basically insanity. I mean, just because I'm soulless doesn't mean I can't lose my mind as well. Though, I may have lost that before I was trapped within that gaping emptiness."

As the monster continued to ramble on about random things, it was clear that Flowey had run away and that Frisk would have to suffer with the knowledge that their friends were trapped in an infinite lack of time and space. That meant that Sans' space time magic would be useless, so he would be unable to teleport out of this so called Void. Frisk hoped that Papyrus would stay optimistic and hopeful in such a dire situation, especially for Sans whom had no hope left. Then there was Chara. Sans would probably try to kill her once and for all, but he would just be fighting her for as long as he was ensnared in the Void since time and space weren't present. That, in turn, would cause neither of them to die, which Frisk supposed was a positive.


	5. Chapter 5

The sound of electricity vibrating around the small chamber didn't help Gaster's nerves as he started up the machine. He typed in the pass code to turn on the automatic system since he was the only monster around. Once the code was inserted, Gaster walked into the machine and allowed himself to be cut off from the rest of the world once again. He took a shaky breath in and out to try to calm his fear of this, most likely, bad idea. But. . . he couldn't turn back now.

. . .

"gaster?"

Sans' gaze swam over the living room for a few seconds, noticing that Gaster wasn't around. He sighed with a hint of depression as he leaned against the wall opposite of the railing, sliding down so he was in a sitting position. He stayed like this for about ten minutes before he heard the door open. He stood and walked over to the rails to see who had entered the house.

"Sans? What are you doing up? Shouldn't you be resting?"

"um. . . i was just. . ."

"Sans, I know it's lonely here by yourself, but I can't stay. Now go back to your room so you can get some sleep."

Sans sighed with defeat.

"alright."

Sans turned and walked back into his room, closing the door behind him. Once Gaster knew Sans couldn't see what he was going to do, he called for someone to enter into the house.

"Alright, Papyrus. I need you to be very _very_ quiet, alright?"

Another skeleton, this one the same height as Gaster as well as having many other similarities, slowly walked into the house. He didn't seem worried, which was the opposite of Sans. Sans appeared laid back, but he was usually on edge; Especially in public. When Gaster had first brought him outside, he continuously looked back and forth. It was as if he was waiting for something to happen that could ruin his life. And whenever he had met any other monsters around the town, he spoke little and appeared nervous only to Gaster. He had apparently trained himself at some point about how to fake certain behaviors, probably having learned to do such things from some of Gaster's memories.

Gaster lead the new skeleton, Papyrus, towards his own room, making sure that Sans didn't hear anything. Once they reached the room, Gaster closed the door and started rambling to himself.

"Great. This is just great. I created another clone of myself. One has my more pessimistic attitude and lack of trust in any other monster, and the other acts like a toddler with all my optimistic and trust in random strangers personality. The term 'opposites attract' couldn't be more wrong. One's in a crippling depression from loneliness, the other doesn't know how to even talk! Fantastic!

Alright. Papyrus, stay here. I'm going to go out for a while."

Gaster walked out of the room, not bothering to lock the door, as he told Sans he would be out for a while.

. . .

Gaster sent out a long sigh as he walked through the dump for anything that may be of use. All the while, he mumbled to himself about the new clone.

"How did the machine even clone my clothes. I'm pretty sure that that was the second time it cloned clothing as well as a second living being."

Gaster sifted through the garbage, finding a few science fiction books for Sans, but nothing for Papyrus as he didn't know much about the new skeleton. That is, until he spotted a bright red scarf entangled in the trash. He grabbed the woolen cloth, its fabric still soft and still in fairly good condition; Almost pristine.

"gaster?"

Gaster turned around after placing the scarf in the pack that he had taken with him.

"Sans! I told you to stay at home!"

"you promised you wouldn't clone yourself again."

"What are you _talking_ about?!"

"there's another skeleton in the house, and he's in _your_ room and has a third of _your_ soul. ya cloned yourself again!"

"Can we talk about this when we get home?"

"sure. . ."

As Gaster began to walk away, the surrounding scenery morphed.

"or. . . we can talk about it now. we have all the time in the world. literally."

"Sans, I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do. You were lone-"

"lonely? yeah. i was. you coul've stayed around the house a little more. or ya could've taken me with ya. now we have another monster in the house who also can't control his magic and is highly intelligent!"

Gaster stood in silence before breaking down in harsh laughter, gasping for breath as he doubled over and grabbed the area where his stomach would be if he had one.

"ya think this is a joke?!"

"No no. It's just, he's not intelligent at all."

"he's not the smartest out of the now three of us, but he's still rather intelligent. he solved a chemical equation that i had never been able to solve before!"

"What?! He took my knowledge of chemistry?! Great. I lost my mathematics intelligence and now my chemistry intelligence."

"hey! i'm sorry i somehow got your ability to solve mathematical equations. and it's not like those two sections are completely gone. ya kinda need them in order for your engineering intelligence to be fully in tact."

"Fine. Fine. Just, what is the exact problem here?"

"you cloned yourself again!"

"Right. Listen, I'm sorry, Sans-"

"i don't care! ya could've killed yourself!"

"I adjusted the machine to where it was less likely for me to die. Do you not trust me?"

Sans stayed silent, changing the location of where he was looking towards the soggy floor of the water filled dump. Gaster began to worry that he had been to harsh with Sans when he saw blue, magic tears prick at the sides of his eye sockets.

"Sans?"

"i-i'm sorry. i teleported again. i shoul've had more control over myself. over my magic."

"Sans, it's alright. You'll be alright. I should've taught you how to use your magic properly earlier anyway. If anything, I should be saying sorry."

"but none of this was your fault. i'm just. . . i just can't do anything right."

"Heh. I guess you got my pessimist side. My guess is Papyrus got my optimist side."

"papyrus?"

"Yep. That's his name. Now c'mon. Let's head home."

The grayed out surroundings fell as Sans let down the time bubble that had kept them in the only space that had time continuing. They began to walk home, but before they continued, Gaster stopped dead still.

"Sans? How. . . how did you do that?"

"do what?"

"Stop time? I knew you could morph space, hence your teleporting magic, but to stop time?"

"oh. i dunno. it's rather tricky. it uses up a lot of my magic."

"But how did you do it?"

"um. . . i simply compressed the surrounding space so much that, instead of space itself being effected, time was effected and stopped entirely."

"So it's just you controlling space?"

"sorta. space and time kinda go hand in hand, so if ya can control one, ya can control the other."

The two began to walk again, heading towards the river so that they could catch a ride with the RiverPerson.

"I just don't see how you could have control over time and space magic, which used to be held by only boss monsters, and not have control over simple bullet magic."

"technically, the three of us are all boss monsters."

"And why's that?"

"none of us can die unless all three of us die."

"Right."

"also, we all may have physics magic."

"What? Physics magic, really? Then doesn't that mean that space-time fall into that category?"

"i think? and as i know it, i can control both space and time. space is way easier than time though."

"Still. In order for a monster to have that sort of magic, they would need a soul as powerful as a human's."

. . .

"i don't have to listen to ya!"

"Please! I know how to get out! I just need-"

"shut up! you're the reason he got out! and now he's gonna kill everyone, and we're gonna rot here!"

"Sans! Quit it!"

"you quit it, chara! you murdered everyone! everyone!"

"you know i didn't-"

"Sans! Stop switching the subject!"

"too bad! i'm the only one with a sense of rationality here!"

"I think opposite. If anything, you're being irrational!"

"STOP IT!"

"stay outta this papyrus!"

"NO! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST-"

"trust them?! no! chara killed everyone! and this idiot let a psychopath loose!"

"No. You don't understand! He used the fact that we share one soul to recreate himself."

"yeah, right! you're probably workin' for him like his damn followers!"

"No!"

"Sans, stop it!"

"shut it, chara!"

"No! You need to listen!"

"no, i don't."

"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!"

Everyone turned towards Papyrus.

"LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS LIKE CIVILIZED MONSTERS. . . AND HUMAN."

"there's nothin' civilized about this situation, paps."

"YES, BUT WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS. WE SHOULDN'T BE TURNING ON EACH OTHER."

Sans, Chara, and the new monster looked away from Papyrus as they realized that they had been fighting to the point that Chara had brought our her knife, Sans had brought our the flare of magic in his left eye, and the new monster had brought out a similar flare of magic except with a black tone to it and a negative glow.

"GOOD. I'M GLAD YOU THREE HAVE COME TO YOUR SENSES. NOW, GASTER. HOW DO WE ESCAPE?"

Gaster looked up, the flare of his black tinted magic extinguishing as Sans' blue magic did the same.

"It's simple. We need to create a space-time bubble. This is the Void. It's a world I created in attempt in creating an artificial Surface. I had Sans help me as he was the only one who could control time and space. I had him create a pocket in space that had a wide extent, but so much space was created that the surrounding space and time around the pocket suppressed the pocket that it turned into something similar to a black hole. Everything ceased to exist in the small pocket, and I only had enough time to save Sans from my fate; Being trapped here in the Void and forgotten by everyone."

"WHAT ABOUT THAT OTHER SKELETON?"

"My father. Well. . . ours. You and Sans are clones of mine. My soul split into equal three parts, so we're basically the same monster."

"ALRIGHT. SO, WHAT DO YOU NEED US TO DO?"

"Sans, we need you to use your space and time magic."

"but there's no space or time here. it's not possible for me to use my magic here like that. physics itself is meaningless here."

"Right, but you created this world. I simply designed it. This world is basically your magic. All you have to do is figure our how to reverse it."

"how am i supposed to do that?"

"Hold on."

Chara had been the one to speak up, her knife tucked away in the pocket of the hoodie she was wearing.

"I have an idea. There are seven human souls, and each have a complimentary color, except for two. The light blue and dark blue both have a complimentary color of orange. If we took Papyrus' magic, it could reverse Sans' magic because he has orange magic, complimentary to blue and light blue magic."

"problem is is that i have yellow magic as well."

"And the complimentary color to that is purple magic."

"But none of us have purple magic."

"yeah. so what do ya suggest we do?"

"We improvise. The closest thing to purple is red. And I know that I have a red soul."

"I have red magic."

Chara looked at Gaster questioningly, curious how a monster had managed such a feat.

"I had a mutation in my genetics that caused me to have black and red magic."

* * *

Author's Note : I apologize for this having taken so long as well as it being shorter than the other chapters. I have had a serious case of writers block, and whenever that happens it can last for months. Whenever I get writers block, it can last so very long, and I hate it when it does occur so I apologize again. Well, Lynx, out.


End file.
